Monday Nutrition Seminar | Front-of-package labeling in the United States: The latest evidence informing policy
Please join the Department of Nutrition for the Monday Nutrition Seminar featuring Aviva A. Musicus, ScD, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Nutrition at HSPH. Dr. Musicus’s talk—”Front-of-package labeling in the United States: The latest evidence informing policy”—will take place on March 30 at 1:00pm ET in FXB G-13 and via Zoom (registration is required).
Healthy snacks will be provided, thanks to the generous support of the Wellbeing Project Fund from the Office of the Associate Provost for Student Affairs.
The Monday Nutrition Seminar Series is free and open to the public. If you plan to attend this event and do not have an active HUID, please fill out the registration form by 3:00 p.m. ET on the Friday before the seminar to request a visitor pass to access the building.
Seminar speakers share their perspectives, they do not speak for Harvard.
Speaker Information
Organizers
Housing and homelessness: Solutions at the intersection of public health and public safety
Presented jointly with the Initiative on Health and Homelessness
As the cost of living rises across the United States, a record number of people experienced homelessness in 2024*, and shelter, housing, and support services are struggling to meet the need. Join leaders across public health and public safety for a conversation that moves beyond emergency response toward prevention, housing-first strategies, and long-term solutions. Grounded in lived experience and evidence, this panel explores cross-sector solutions with a focus on dignity, safety, and sustainable housing.
*Data according to National Alliance to End Homelessness State of Homelessness: 2025 edition
Register for free to submit your questions.
An on-demand video will be posted after the event.
Speakers
Monica Bharel
Leslie Credle
Gil Kerlikowske
Peter Koutoujian
Moderator
About The Studio
Discovery to intervention: The Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative with Stephen G. Matthews, PhD, FCAHS
Please join the Harvard Chan NIEHS Center for Environmental Health and the Department of Environmental Health for a talk by Stephen G. Matthews, PhD, FCAHS, Canada Research Chair in Early Development and Health and Professor of Physiology, Ob-Gyn and Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Matthews will discuss “Discovery to intervention: The Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative.”
This event will be held in person (HSPH Bldg. 1, 1302) and via Zoom. Lunch and refreshments provided! Register here
Trainee meeting for students and postdocs immediately following the seminar, 2-3 pm, in 1306A! Come in-person to discuss research interests, career plans, and funding opportunities. RSVP here!
Abstract
It is well established that the environment during pregnancy can have a long-term impact on cardiometabolic and neurodevelopmental outcomes in offspring and increase risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in later life. There is growing evidence from preclinical studies and some clinical studies that the preconception period in both females and males and the early pregnancy phase are periods of high sensitivity to environmental perturbation. The Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative (HeLTI) was developed to translate new knowledge in the area of developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) and improve the health of mothers, infants and children. The HeLTI consortium includes harmonized trials in Canada, China, India and South Africa designed to evaluate the impact of an integrated evidence-based intervention package, delivered through the preconception, pregnancy and postnatal period on, 1) reducing adiposity and obesity, and improving neurodevelopmental and cardiometabolic development in infants and children to 5-years of age and, 2) improving maternal health and pregnancy outcomes. All trials have completed recruitment and combine harmonized data and biospecimen collection. The HeLTI-India trial will be described in detail. Findings from the HeLTI studies will have profound implications for public health policy but will also allow determination of the mechanisms that underlie intergenerational transmission. HeLTI is funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and International funding agencies (India, China and South Africa) and is partnered with WHO.
About the speaker
Stephen Matthews, PhD, FCAHS, is Canada Research Chair in Early Development and Health, Professor of Physiology, Ob-Gyn and Medicine at the University of Toronto and a Senior Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health. He served as Chair of the Department of Physiology (UofT; 2007-2014). He is currently Director of Research at the Alliance for Human Development, LTRI, and Director of the Ontario Birth Study. Matthews is also the Canadian lead PI of the CIHR/DBT-funded Healthy Life Trajectories (HeLTI) trial in India.
His fundamental research program is determining mechanisms by which early interventions and exposures can impact long-term neurologic and endocrine function in offspring across multiple generations. With a focus on epigenetics, his research team is determining the molecular mechanisms by which this occurs. In a parallel program, his group is investigating drug and hormone transport mechanisms in the placenta and fetal brain, with a focus on developing novel treatments to protect the developing fetal brain.
Professor Matthews is committed to translating fundamental research to improve human health. In addition to leadership of the HeLTI-India trial and the Ontario Birth Study, he co-founded the MAVAN program, which followed neurocognitive development in children following adverse early experience. He has secured over $40M in research funding, published 265 full papers and has received >300 invitations to present his work around the world. He was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2019). He has served as elected President of the Society for Reproductive Investigation. In 2015, he co-founded DOHaD Canada and served as elected President (2018-23).
Speaker Information
Organizers
Nature and Health with Dr. Susan Abookire
The Climate Change & Planetary Health Concentration invites you to their next Brown Bag Lunch Seminar, featuring Dr. Susan Abookire discussing the health benefits of nature.
Topic: Nature and Health
Speaker: Susan Abookire, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School; & Founder, Nature Systems Institute
Date: April 8, 2026 at 1:00 p.m.
Location: FXB G-12, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
You can read more about Dr. Abookire’s work in this recent Washington Post article, “Forest Bathing: Why Harvard doctors are seeking out this natural remedy for themselves.”
The Climate Change and Planetary Health concentration helps students understand the consequences of the current planetary health crisis, including the effects on food, water, air, extreme weather events, heat, migration, and political stability and their subsequent impacts on infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, nutrition, and mental health. Each month, the concentration hosts a seminar, open to all students and faculty at Harvard Chan, featuring a special guest discussing their work at the intersections of climate and health. Learn more.
Speaker Information
Susan Abookire
Organizers
Forging better futures: Solutions-based science to address extreme weather with Rachel Morello-Frosch, PhD, MPH
Please join the Harvard Chan NIEHS Center for Environmental Health and the Department of Environmental Health for a talk by Rachel Morello-Frosch, PhD, MPH, Professor, UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Morello-Frosch will discuss “Forging better futures: Solutions-based science to address extreme weather.”
This event will be held in person (HSPH Bldg. 1, 1302) and via Zoom. Lunch and refreshments provided! Register here
Trainee meeting for students and postdocs immediately following the seminar, 2-3 pm! Come in-person to discuss research interests, career plans, and funding opportunities. RSVP here!
About the speaker
Rachel Morello-Frosch, PhD, MPH, is an environmental health scientist, epidemiologist, and professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health and Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. For over 25 years, her research has examined structural determinants of environmental health and how co-exposures to chemical and non-chemical stressors impact health. Much of her work has examined this question in the context of exposures to ambient air pollution, drinking water contaminants, endocrine disrupting chemicals, extreme weather, and effects on perinatal and developmental outcomes. In addition to using community-engaged approaches in her work, Rachel also collaborates with regulatory agencies to develop science-policy tools to assess the cumulative impacts of multiple environmental and social factors that inform regulatory decision-making. Morello-Frosch is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and a 2025-26 Harvard Radcliffe Fellow.
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Organizers
Crochet Workshop at Harvard Chan
Join us for a beginner crochet workshop.
All material provided. Free snacks and coffee/tea.
Event hosted by Office for Student Affairs
14th Annual Roma Conference | Mapping Romani futures: Connected local histories and global realities
International Roma Day has been celebrated by Romani communities around the world for decades. This year marks the 55th anniversary of the First World Roma Congress, a historic gathering at which Roma Day, the Romani flag, and the anthem “Gelem, Gelem” were adopted as key symbols of the global Roma diaspora.
Across regions, neighborhoods, organizations, and institutions use this anniversary to highlight Romani heritage through concerts, exhibitions, film screenings, conferences, and media events. Many leaders and scholars also observe Roma Day with commemorations that honor victims of anti-Roma racism and reflect on progress in social, political, cultural, and economic life.
Since 2013, the annual Harvard Roma Conference has provided a forum to examine and address anti-Roma racism—its origins, history, drivers, protectors, and global manifestations, with particular attention to children and youth. The conference has worked to strengthen data collection on Roma (especially youth and children), improve research methods, promote participatory action research with Romani youth, and critically revisit histories, policies, and practices affecting Romani communities. A central goal has been to amplify and center Romani voices and experiences in global scholarship.
On April 10, 2026, the 14th Harvard Roma Conference, Mapping Romani Futures: Connected Local Histories and Global Realities, will once again mark Roma Day. This year’s event examines Romani histories and present-day realities to help shape more equitable futures for Romani children, youth, and generations to come, situating these discussions within a global context of rising human rights abuses, wars, extremism, and climate and digital threats.
This year’s program includes:
Keynote panel on global and regional trends and threats affecting Romani children and youth, especially in the context of escalating human rights abuses, wars, extremism, and climate and digital risks.
Panel 1 – Connected Futures, Histories, and Realities: Exploring connections and continuities in Romani histories and lived realities, and how these shape the lives, inequities, and identities of Romani children, youth, and future generations.
Panel 2 – Intersectionality and Intersecting Stories: Examining often overlooked and marginal axes of inequity in narratives of Romani histories, realities, and futures.
Book talk: Continuing a recent tradition, the conference will close with a book talk highlighting recent monographs on Romani people, with emphasis on works that advance global scholarship.
Organizers
Recorded Q&A, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, 1-1:30pm ET
At just 10 human cases, reports of Guinea worm, a debilitating parasitic disease with no vaccine or drug treatment, are at an all-time low, according to The Carter Center.* What drove this success?
Former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and The Carter Center’s Sarah Yerian and Emily Staub answered questions following the screening of The President and the Dragon, a documentary about former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s efforts to eradicate Guinea worm, at the Harvard Chan School. This a recording of that Q&A.
Released last fall, The President and the Dragon is available on various streaming platforms.
*Figures are provisional until officially confirmed.
Speakers
Emily Staub
Rochelle Walensky
Sarah Yerian
About The Studio
Brown Bag Seminar: AI×public health: Analytic tool and emerging population exposure
Benjamin Rader is a computational epidemiologist who currently serves as the scientific director of Boston Children’s Hospital’s Innovation and Digital Health Group and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Rader’s research focuses on leveraging digital technologies and data to improve public health and has appeared in JAMA, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Economist, U.S. Presidential Addresses, and Supreme Court amicus briefs. He has helped advise numerous government agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Department of Defense, and previously resided with his family in Berlin, Germany, while serving as an AI advisor to the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence. Rader, a former U.S. Army Officer and Johns Hopkins’ Emerging Leader in Biosecurity Fellow, received his PhD from Boston University and MPH from Northwestern University.
Speaker Information
Organizers
Brown Bag Seminar: Primary Healthcare IMPACT Lab at the Center for Indonesia’s Strategic Development Initiatives
In this seminar, Diah Saminarsih will introduce the Primary Healthcare IMPACT Lab, a new collaboration between the Center for Indonesia’s Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI) and the Program in Global Primary Health Care, a shared initiative of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Global Health Equity and Harvard Medical School. The Lab aims to support Indonesia’s primary health care transformation through locally grounded research, training, and service innovation. The discussion will also reflect on the broader role of Global South–led partnerships in shaping the future of health systems.
Diah Saminarsih is the founder and CEO of CISDI and a distinguished global development practitioner and public health advocate. Diah concluded her role as senior advisor to the WHO Director-General on Gender and Youth in August 2022. In this role, she established dialogues with member states and their youth delegates on meaningful youth engagement. She also spearheaded strategies for youth engagement and gender mainstreaming, in close collaboration with development partners and member state representatives.
After leaving WHO, Diah served on the board of the Pandemic Fund as the CSO Global South Representative. She co-founded the Stop TB Partnership Indonesia in 2018 and played a key role in advising and overseeing the work of the Global Fund TB Community Principal Recipient Consortium from 2021 to 2023. She also served as special staff to Indonesia’s Minister of Health (2014-2019) and special staff to Indonesia’s MDGs Envoy (2010-2014). During her work with the government of Indonesia, Diah was Indonesia’s co-negotiator in the SDGs negotiation. Her involvement in health security national design brought Indonesia to be part of the initial troika in the Global Health Security Agenda initiative, along with the U.S. and Finland.
Diah is currently a Commissioner for the Lancet Global Health Commission on People-Centered Care for Universal Health Coverage and Dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Education at Universitas Harkat Negeri, in Tegal, Central Java, Indonesia.
Speaker Information
Diah Saminarsih
